Railway-crossing gate.



E. H. SMITH.

RAILWAY CROSSING GATE, APPLICATION FILED NOV- 2.19m.

1,229,339. Patented June 12, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

WEE)

E. H. SMITH.

RAILWAY CROSSING GATE.

APPLICATION men NOV-2.1915.

Patented June 12 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2'.

ms NGRI'HS rare-vs 17..FHOYILUYHDY.WASHINGIGAL n cy EMERY H. SMITH, 0F BURTON, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, OF ONE-FOURTH T0 FRANK T. WRIGHT, OF MIDDLEBURY, MICHIGAN, AND ONE-FOURTH T0 JOHN A. HOMER, 0F OWOSSO, MICHIGAN.

RAILWAY-CROSSING GATE.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, EMERY H. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Burton, in the county of Shiawassee and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway- Crossing Gates; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in railway crossing gates and the principal object of the invention is to provide a crossing gate for use in connection with railroads, which will prevent persons from crossing the track during the approach of a train toward the railway crossing.

Another object of the invention is to pro vide an automatically operated gate which eliminates the necessity of providing an operator for each gate or sets of gates.

Another object of the invention is to provide an automatic releasing means for permitting the gates to return to their normal open position after the train has passed a crossing.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel combination and arrangement of parts which will be fully set forth in the following specification and accompanying drawings,in which Figure 1 is a sideview of a railroad track showing this improved gate as it would ap pear when mounted in operative position, with relation thereto.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail side view of the gate and standard for supporting the same.

Fig. 1 is a rear end view of Fig.3, and

Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail view of the operating lever.

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates a railroad track of the usual construction consisting of the ordinary rails and ties. The locomotive or rolling stock is designated by the numeral 2 and the forward end thereof is provided with the outwardly extending contact bar 3 which engages the actuating lever of the gate upon the approach of a train toward the crossing Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 12, 1917.

Serial No. 59,274.

and engages the releasing lever as the same leaves the crossing.

Supported near the track but spaced outwardly therefrom are the standards 4, each of which has pivoted intermediate its ends an arm 5 the long end of which extends angularly from the standard and forms the gate. This arm carries the members 6, which are secured thereto in any suitable manner and is normally held in inoperative position as shown in Fig. 1 by a suitable retractile coil spring 7, one end of which is secured to the arm while the opposite end issecured to the standard. In order to further assist in the holding of the gate in its inoperative position, the short end of the arm 5 is provided with a'series of notches 8 in which the bail or loop of the weight 9 seats.

Rotatably mounted near the lower end of the standard is a grooved wheel 10 and wound around the wheel making a single turn is a rope or cable 11 one end of which is in turn intermediate the ends of the long portion of the arm 5, while the opposite end is. attached to the actuating lever which will be more fully hereinafter described.

The actuating lever above referred to is best illustrated in Fig. 5 and consists of the semi-circular head 12 having formed thereon the arm 13, which extends angnlarly and mounted beneath the free end of the arm 13 and one of the sides of the compression coil spring 14, which normally exerts upward pressure on the arm to hold the same in proper position. The flexible member 11 passes around the semi-circular head 12 and is secured thereto in any suitable manner so that when the arm 13 is moved downwardly, the head 12 will revolve on its central pivot, thereby exerting pull on the flexible member 11 so'as to raise theelongated end of the arm 5.

In order to hold the gate in its lowered position, there is pivotally mounted as at 15 on the disk 10, the pawl 16 provided with the hooks 17 which engage the end of the tie over which the disk is rotatable. The pawl is disengaged by the arm 18, which is pivotally mounted in a suitable bearing 19 on the upper surface of the tie and formed integrally with the arm 20 which extends upwardly and angularly therefrom so that as the train passes over the road the arm 20 will be depressed thereby moving the arm 18 upwardly and lifting the pawl 16 so that the hook 17 is disengaged from the tie, thereby permitting the disk 10 to rotate and the arm or gate to move into inoperative position. In order to normally throw the arm upwardly, there is provided a compression coil spring 21 which is mounted between the free end of the arm 20 and the upper surface of the tie and normally exerts upward pressure on the arm 20 to hold the arm 18 in the position shown.

It will be apparent from the foregoing that in use a train upon approaching the railroad crossing on which this device is at tached will first draw the contact arm 3 to engage the lever 18, thus moving the same downwardly and exerting pull on the flexible member 11 so as to rotate the disk 10 and pull the arm 5 into a horizontal position as shown in Fig. 3. The arm 5 is held in its position by means of the pawl 16 hereinbefore referred to and the same then passing over the crossing will engage the arm 20, thereby releasing the pull and permitting the spring 7 to return the arm 5 to its raised position as shown in Fig. 1, thus leaving the crossing clear and permittingvehicles and pedestrians to pass.-

From the foregoing it .will be apparent that a particularly, simple and efficient gate actuating mechanism is provided which operates automatically upon the approach of a train toward the crossing.

lVhile in the foregoing there has been shown and described the preferred embodiment of this invention, it is to be understood that such changes may be made in the combination and arrangement of parts as will fall within the spirit and scope of the appendedclaims. Y

Whatis claimed is r 1. A railroad crossing gate comprising a standarcha gate pivoted to the upper end of the standard, a disk rotatably mounted near the'lower end of the standard, a seg-' ment pivoted near the track, a lever connected to the segment and adapted to be moved downwardly by a train, a cable socured to the gate and passing around the disk and being secured to the segment Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, my addressing the :Cominis s'ioner of Patents,

' position.

2. A railroad crossing gate including a standard adapted to be placed beside a railroad track, a disk memberpivotednear the upper end of the standard, a disk rotatably mounted near the lower end of the standard, a counter balancing weight for the gate member, a'spring connected to the standard near its upper end and to the gate member" intermediate its endsto normally exert upward pull on said gate member to hold the same in open position, a cable attached to the gate member near the points where the spring is attached, said cable passing beneath the disk, a lever pivoted at the side of the track at a point distant from the standard, a segment onsaid lever, the end of the cable opposite that attached to the gate member being attached to the segment, the lever being adapted to be engaged bytrip members,

carried by a train to cause thesegment to partially rotateand exert pull on the cable to move the gate to closed'position against the tension of the spring, a pawl pivoted to the disk and adapted to engage one of the ties of the track when the gate is in its lowered position, a spring for holding said pawl in such engagement, a rocking arm on the tie, a finger on the arm extending beneath the pawl and adapted when said arm is rocked to release the pawl, an actuating arm on the rocking arm adaptedto be engaged by one of the wheels of a train to cause said arm to rock and release the pawl and a springbeneath the actuating arm to hold the samein inoperative position.

'In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of twowitnesses; I

V EMERY H. SMITH.

7 'Witnesses: c V r 4 JAS. N; MCBRIDE, '7 WM. KILLIAN.

Washington, D. G. 

